A City Built on Blood

"If there is one element which courses through the city's arteries, it is blood. The blood of the Indians defeated and enslaved then decimated by diseases; blood on the hands of the Conquistadors who fought over their new-found lands; blood stains from the nineteenth century battles between liberals and conservatives; and blood in the churches. " - Dominic Hamilton

Ever since Cameron sent me this article, I have been contemplating this idea that the city is built on blood. My Spanish teacher, Fanny, informed me that when they built the plaza de San francisco, the blood of the slaughtered animals was used as mortar for the stones. Today in La Iglesia Guápulo, I thought of how this very ornate church was built by the hands of salves, how the gold was most likely plundered from the incas. I marveled in sort of a disgusted wonder at the emaciated saint of penitence, the weird enormous crowns on the virgin mother, and the gold robes the priests wore. How did this breed of Christianity evlove from Jesus overturning the tables in the emples renouncing greed, opulence, and wealth? Then again, how did modern protestantism evolve from love your neighbor as yourself? As I looked at the bloodiest Christ on the cross yet, I really took in the blood dripping from the crown of thorns, his knees, the nails in his hands and feet, the wound in his side, and I remembered Hamilton´s words, "Christ suffered for you, say the Catholics in Europe. But in the New World they said Christ suffered like you: whipped and beaten and treated like a dog. But He was saved. Just as you will be; just as soon as we've worked you to death." All of this makes me feel a little funny about my affection for colonial architecture.